Cop watch
Subtitle: spectators, social media, and police reform
By: Hans Toch
Publisher: American Psychological Association
Published: 2012
Place of publication: Washington, D.C
Language: eng
Number of pages: 188
ISBN-13: 9781433811197
Subjects: Police; Police brutality; Police-community relations
Description: Toch (emeritus, criminal justice, U. of Albany-SUNY) reviews the history of police reform over the past 50 years, stressing the role of citizen "spectators" in shaping police practice and policy, especially in the era of new digital communication such as social networking sites, cell phones, and blogging. The author also draws on his own original research in crowd behavior. The first part of the book relies on interviews with real police officers in an anonymous West Coast city from 1967 to 1971, shedding light on that city's experience with citizen concerns about police brutality and the subsequent resistance of rank-and-file police officers to reforms. Part 2, the bulk of the book, examines accusations of police brutality in Seattle, 2010-1011. The book includes an extensive list of references, mainly online documentation for the Seattle section. Annotation ©2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com).
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: The clamorous chorus; title: The concern with the injustice or unfairness of police interventions; title: A concern about police brutality or disproportionate police response; title: Sensing an unbridgeable divide; title: Rank-and-file resistance to community relations reforms; title: The birth of modern policing; title: A video clip in Seattle; title: A posthumous chorus and street justice in Seattle; title: Learning to live with due process; title: Volatile scenarios in the ghetto.